A Hunter's Tales
by MobMotherScitah
Summary: Inspired by some work here on and also by Laurel K. Hamilton's writings. I am a hunter of Vampire's and Lycanthropes and all that, but I've been doing this for 13 or so years and in my time as a Hunter, there are a few stories I would like to share.


I sat across from an associate of mine, or rather, an apprentice of mine. Never had I accepted one of his kind, but, I was getting beyond my years for my line of work, any ways.

So, I invited him to lunch to discuss how working on his own was going for him.

"I've been good… I haven't frozen since working first hand with the stuff you end up doing, but it has been quite good." He said, sipping his coffee, having to work later tonight.

I nodded, "Good. But then again, I have always taken the heavier cases…" I admitted to him.

He nodded, setting his mug down after burning his tongue. Handing him a napkin, I chuckled at how 'Rookie' he still was.

"God, that's hot!" He gasped out, wiping his mouth. When he finished cleaning up and was sure he could talk without slurring at his burnt tongue, he asked the one question I had told him to never ask until he was ready, "Why do you take the cases that no one else will take?"

I sighed, whether he was ready or not, he deserved to know after the hell I put him through since day one.

Taking a sip of my water, I stared hard at the clear liquid, then looked him hard in the eyes.

He knew the look well and frowned, a very good look for his dark complexion with ominously bright eyes that spooked me at first.

Robert was a quarter Spanish, the rest of him blonde haired blue eyed American! How he got the darker features, I'll never know, but they suited him well, and I could feel every female in the café tighten at the powerful presence.

He held himself in a way that women would part their lips and shudder in ecstasy just hearing him say their name.

When I first met Robert, or Robby, as he insisted I call him, I didn't trust him… He reminded me of the Vampire in the story I am about to tell him.

The one that got to my childhood friend, Isabella.

Isabella had the darkest hair I had ever seen and it was very curly, giving her an exotic and innocent look, pulling the pure green of her eyes from her golden skin, nothing like the almost olive gold of Robert's skin!

She was a voluptuous woman and was damned proud of that fact! She was 5'4" and her curves struck even the pickiest of men as desirable!

But, it wasn't just that that had made her such a fine woman. She was always joking, always seductive in the strangest ways. Even most women we met were drawn to her without knowing why.

I should have known that those traits would snag her the most wanted criminal syndicate Vampire in the state!

I finally began telling Robert my tale, explaining who was involved and certain key traits in them.

Every one in my line of business knew of Monsieur Mort, as he called himself… But, I didn't think Robert knew. It was before his time, any ways.

"When I started as a Preternatural Hunter, I was taken under the best of that time. Gordon Hesidian, a God fearing man who found Vampires and Lycanthropes, and other such creatures to be abominations and blights on the planet. He is where I got my minor belief from. You can't do this work without believing in something up there." I pointed upwards.

He nodded and flashed his blessed cross pendant on his pure silver chain, the one I gave him. "You gave me mine."

I smirked and nodded, proud that he still had it. "It's good you still have it."

"I'd never lose it. I'd race back into hell to retrieve it!" He exclaimed like an excited child getting exactly what they wished for.

Chuckling, I shook my head a bit, "Well… Before then, I had a childhood friend named Isabella, the woman I had explained a few moments ago," He nodded, smile gone, "and she was very supportive of my finding the perfect career after a band of crazed Lycanthropes tore through my house one night. They killed my mother, father, grand mother who was ill with cancer, my younger brother and sister, and older brother. Hell, they even killed our cat, two dogs, and three goldfish! I was hidden in the attic and before they got to me, Gordon, my mentor and hero, burst in and slaughtered the Lycans quite quickly."

Robert smiled, "A good man even in the beginning."

I had introduce Robert to Gordon around two months into Roberts training and the two took a liking to each other.

Gordon once had chestnut brown hair and deep brown eyes that were kind through and through, even though his face showed particular nasty scars and seemed to hold a harsh tone to it, but his hair was as white as snow now!

Gordon now had great grand children, and had even tried hooking me up with one of his three sons, none of which I liked like that.

"Since I ended up with no other family, Gordon took me in and when I turn 18, I had my first fight with him. Three guesses on what about?" I quizzed Robert, seeing if he knew me well enough.

I didn't doubt him, but it was just for fun, "Becoming a Hunter?"

"Yup. Gordon refused every time I asked until one night, a lone Vampire, starved from capture and on a rampage, broke in while Gordon was away. I had already been awake and in the kitchen when the fool tore into the patio door in the living room. I grabbed a few knives and snuck in as the Vampire feasted on Winston, the Golden Retriever that was as old as I then." I paused and sipped my water.

"Gordon had a dog?" Robert asked.

I nodded, setting my cup down, "Yes. It was his first and last pet. Lasted forever, even when diagnosed with some hidden and unknown canine disease! Any ways, I lobbed the idiot's head off and had to do the same to Winston. You know what happens to animals after they are bitten, right?" He nodded with a frown, "Nasty stuff."

He nodded still, "They turn into these freaks, even for Lycanthropes and Vampires… Mutated and furless, acidic saliva, increased teeth and nails… Retched. Continue…"

I smirked sadly, "Any ways, by then, every one was in the living room, Nancy scared shitless, the boys freaking out… Gordon came home later that morning and gaped. I was so shaken by my first kill that I was still sitting between the two bodies and staring out into space at the blood all over the white carpet."

"Bet they had to get a new one?" Robert joked, trying to lighten the mood, which he did quite successfully.

I chuckled, "Yes. The carpet that replaced it had to be worn in and was rough on all us 'kids' who loved to lay on the floor and watch tv."

He laughed, and if I were another woman, a different woman, I probably would have leapt over the table and tore off his clothes right here and now… But, I was me and to me, he was off limits.

It would have looked strange any ways. A young man with a woman a good ten years older than him with black hair streaking silver with stress and age and about two feet shorter than him.

It seemed as though all the men were tall and women short in this line of work. I was tall next to the other females.

"Well…" I began after he calmed down, "Gordon helped me clean up and comforted me and congratulated me on my first kill. When he tucked me in that night, cause let me tell you, I needed it, I regained some smarts and asked if I could become a hunter now. He sighed like he always did when I asked, then rubbed his eyes and nodded, telling me he would began my training when he had time off next week."

"Must have been rough?" Robert asked, knowing that Gordon, although the sweetest old coot any one could meet, was no push over and went easy on no one.

Nodding, I glanced down, hand resting around my glass, "Rough doesn't quite cover it, but, yes. It was very hard training. As my training began, I began to lose contact with Isabella. I didn't know that she needed me like I had needed Gordon that night until it was far too late."

My pause was longer than it should have been and Robert placed his hand over mine, "What happened?"

I glanced up into his haunting green eyes and began nodding, "A good three years into Hunting, PHI(Preternatural Hunters Incorporated) got a call about Monsieur Mort and his Syndicate being in the area and causing trouble. Their estimated number was off the chart and required every one from a few of the younger veterans in their 60s to the Apprentices in their older teens… Gordon sent myself and a few of the younger Hunters to an apartment complex that had become totally Vampire controlled for the newer Vampires."

I blinked a moment, remembering everything vividly, after all, that mission haunted me and still does. A reassuring squeeze on my hand brought me back and I continued.

"It was the after noon, meaning the newer vamps would be out like lights and the older at lower energies, depending on their age, as you know. And, we branched out, taking floors, which settled it to groups of three for four floors. I had the two newest members, since I was the oldest of the young group at the complex. I had it arranged so that I was the one who would kill the vamps and the one under me would stay out in the hall while the youngest followed until half way in, which was often the apartment's living room! We went through the entire northern side, then went to the left. By the time I reached the bedroom of 4J, I realized that I knew exactly who used to live here.

"By then, I began to pray to whom ever it concerned that she did not get bitten or killed. That she had moved way before the conversion… I walked into that room and nearly died out of shock right then and there, but something kept me thinking, kept me awake inside. I took aim and coaxed myself into inching closer to get a better shot. Just as I was about to shoot Isabella, she bolted upwards, sitting up on her knees in a navy blue nighty that was short enough to show me the bite on her inner, upper thigh.

"Blood dripped from her mouth as all I could see were her pupils as she stared in horror at me. She knew exactly who I was and exactly what I was doing there. She didn't move for the longest time and neither did I. She finally whispered the name Pierre and I connected that she was talking about Monsieur Mort, the sucker that bit her. By the fact that she had blood oozing from her mouth, I knew that some one had killed the bastard.

"She looked exactly like the last time I had seen her, only, extremely pale. I snapped myself out of it and decided a wider hole was needed and pulled out my shot gun. A line like Mort's was not to be underestimated!" I quickly said at the shocked face of Robert.

He nodded, "The older ones are resilient…"

"Indeed… So, I aimed at her after cocking the gun, a noise the hunter will always respect, and she glared at me. After all we've been through? She screamed. After everything I have done for you? You stupid human! And she kept screaming… It was then that I told myself that it was only her memories, but it wasn't her. It was not the Isabella that I had known. It was then that I shot her, no turning back."

I stopped and let all of it sink in. I hadn't told any one my experiences and I probably never would again. Telling some one about it really helped me sever those last few strings that held me back for so damned long.

"The shot severed her arm and covered her left breast, went under the top half of her shoulder blade, and took most of her left ribs. She looked beautiful even though she was dead and gory. Just as beautiful as she did when she was alive. The two rookies had come in to see why one of the Vampire Newbies was yelling and just stared. Realizing they were there, I turned to them like a mother to her misbehaving children. I yelled at them about their posts that they abandoned and they scampered back, too afraid to ask about what had just happened. We finished the complex and went to the nearby hide out for Mort and his posse. We shot anything that ran out that was not human.

"When Gordon came out, he immediately looked me over and asked what was wrong. He also told me that I resembled the frightened look I held back at my first kill… I told him that I had to shoot Isabella and he instantly knew. He hugged me and wouldn't let go until he felt that I would be fine later. That night, I absolutely could not sleep… But word about that kill got around to the older Hunters and they commemorated me for following Gordon's footsteps on being one of the best hunters."

"Who did Gordon kill that resembled your killing Isabella?" Robert asked, sipping his now cold coffee, which he grimaced, but drank any ways.

"His father, mother, and sister. Turns out his father was a Hunter, but had gotten bitten and his mind broke under the facts and he bit his wife and daughter while Gordon was at an away game. He played baseball." I answered Robert's next unasked question before he could even think it, "So, a week later, Gordon went home and nearly became one as well, but quickly killed them. A year later, he became a lone Hunter, or a Stalker, as the phrase goes. It was not long after that that he got singled out by PHI and agreed to become their head Hunter."

I felt a buzz on my hip and glanced down at the number: PHI

I swigged the rest of my water, "Turns out, I took after him a lot."

"How so?" Robert questioned, swigging down his cold coffee, obviously having gotten the same message.

We stood up and as I went to pay, Robert already had. What a gentleman.

I didn't continue the story until we got into my new Toyota Prius, black on black.

Heading towards the office, I glanced at Robert a few times, "Gordon wouldn't accept an apprentice until me. So, you've got some shoes to fill and stories to live up to, Robert."

He laughed, his voice echoing throughout my tidy and spacious car. "I don't think I want to."

I smirked, "Let's hope that you won't have to…"

I believe I spoke too soon…

As we went into the office, it seemed as though every one was here. Just like last time…

It was Robert's third year of being on the team since apprenticeship… Thirteen years for me. Just like when it was three years in for myself and thirteen for Gordon.

I grumbled, "You do realize that there are no such things as coincidences, Robert, right?"

He gave me a funny look as we jogged up the stairs to the fifth floor, refusing to be lazy and take the elevator, then nodded, "Yeah…"

Poor kid.


End file.
